Bowlers such as Gerhard Erasmus, Saim Ayub, and Aryan Dutt have done well against India in this tournament, which has made the team rethink how they handle spin bowling. India haven’t had the best start while defending their T20 World Cup title.
The biggest issue has been the batting not performing at its best. Abhishek Sharma has been out for zero three times in a row, and the team has struggled to build momentum during the middle overs. Because of this, India have depended on a few strong individual performances to post competitive scores.
This version of the team looks different from the one that used to score 200-plus totals in T20Is with ease. A big reason for the slow start is that opponents have come prepared with solid plans, and the pitches haven’t been very friendly for batting.
According to assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, one key tactic used by other teams has been bowling finger spin to slow things down against India’s batters. With bigger ground sizes also helping fielding teams, it has been harder for India to score freely.
“I’d say finger spin (is the problem). If you take the combined figures, Pakistan bowled 14 overs of finger spin in the last game and, off the top of my head, it was something like 4/78. So it’s not a great number,” explained ten Doschate in the post-match press conference, regarding how India’s batters such as Abhishek, Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav have been kept quiet.
Large Grounds and Turning Tracks Raise Concerns
“Colombo was a particularly difficult wicket. The numbers against the Netherlands improved towards the back end. But again, Dutt bowling four overs for what he did was a big challenge,” he explained. Aryan Dutt took wickets of Abhishek and Ishan Kishan, with finger-spin in the powerplay working to jolt India’s start to the innings.
Ten Doeschate also admitted that slow pitches and bigger boundaries have made things tougher for the team. However, he said that even though the Super 8 matches will be played at more batting-friendly grounds like Wankhede Stadium and Eden Gardens, the team will still keep working on improving against finger-spin and won’t ignore that challenge.
“I think these two venues in particular—with a bigger boundary here and obviously a slower wicket in Colombo—exaggerate that. But it’s something we’re going to have to focus on,” explained the Dutch
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